It's easy to make mornings into an impersonal assembly line—get showered, get caffeinated, eat, get to work. One early riser suggests making a serious habit of focusing four minutes every morning on significant others. No, not those four minutes.

Tech investor Brad Feld believes strongly in the four minutes of concentrated couple time. Sometimes it goes beyond four minutes, but every day, there is four minutes of time spent each morning on talking to, and about, each other. It might be over the phone or Skype in certain situations, but it always happens, and it's a real routine. Feld wakes up earlier than his wife and hits the web, but then:

When Amy gets up, I try to remember to jump up from my computer and start our four minutes. Sometimes I forget and notice it when she thumps me on my head or clears her throat loudly. But I eventually remember. We then leave the office area, go to our living room, or outside on our porch, and spend our "four minutes" together.

Of course, the "four minutes" is metaphorical. Sometimes it's 15 minutes. A few times a year it turns into an hour when we end up in a discussion about something. But it's always 100% bi-directional attention, except for our dogs who often want in on the discussion.

You do have four minutes in your morning, and even if it doesn't seem like much, it's the daily effort to enact it that conveys real affection. And, yes, we know what you're thinking, but try talking instead.